episode_0619

As soon as he stepped foot in, he could tell with his nose that the store he entered was a bar.

Colorful lights, loud music, and even a commotion.

The man’s eyes were caught by the chaotic interior that mixed metal and glass. The ceiling was decorated with complex patterns like a giant circuit board, and various digital art pieces were projected on the walls as holograms, slowly moving the artwork to fill the space.

As soon as he entered the store, the commotion among them, who had been sitting at their tables, suddenly stopped.

The music struggled alone to breathe energy back into the space that had fallen into silence for a moment. The unique sound of a rough mix of electronic sounds and classical instruments struck my heart.

Although this place is nominally a bar, its true identity is actually a sort of middleman where all sorts of legal and illegal activities take place.

There were many different people sitting at the table.

Some were drinking while wearing VR goggles that men used to wear, and there were also cyborgs with more than half of their bodies replaced by machines. Among them were hackers who traded information, mercenaries who performed corporate missions, and ordinary citizens who simply came to relieve the fatigue of the day.

With such a diverse group of people, it was natural for existing customers to be wary of new customers. Some might become colleagues, but others could definitely become enemies.

The fact that everyone briefly glanced at the man when he appeared is proof of this.

But soon most people snorted softly and looked away.

This was not the man’s first time visiting this place.

As for existing customers, there was no need to be wary of him, as he was of the same class as them. He was a kind of proven figure who had been observed for quite some time.

However, there seemed to be quite a few new customers today, as several of them with their hoods pulled down low to cover their faces could be seen slowly turning their heads to follow his movements.

In a place like this, observing without looking away was no different from viewing the target as ‘prey’ and assessing it. In short, it was picking a fight.

This tavern was neutral ground, so if you pulled out a gun at the wrong time, everyone would be in an uproar, but of course, if you left this place and were found dead in some back alley, you wouldn’t be able to complain.

‘Damn, I guess I should just skip the alcohol and just do some work and disappear.’

The man’s expression, which had been on his mind to wet his lips in reality for the first time in a while, frowned harshly.

“… What you always drink?”

“No, that’s enough for today. Just give me something simple to eat.”

Sitting at the bar, he curtly ordered from the bartender, who had a cybernetic prosthetic arm attached to his right arm.

The prosthetic arm worn by this bartender adjusts the ingredients of the drink on a molecular level according to the customer’s order, thus achieving the exact taste and effect desired. As a man, I could not help but smack my lips in regret.

He stared at the TV screen on the wall while waiting for his food to arrive.

There was a private news channel for the planet Frontier-7016 floating there.

-Chijijik… Recently, a new type of drug called Red Shadow has been spreading rapidly throughout our planetary system. This drug has become a major social problem because it greatly increases the violence and aggression of users. Three days ago, in Neo Titan City, a group of addicts who took the drug took over the streets and rioted, but were suppressed by the defense force…

The moment he saw the news, the first thing that came to the man’s mind was the trio of drug dealers he had met on his way here.

‘He was under the influence of drugs, but he didn’t show any violent tendencies. He didn’t seem to be in a position to be picky about the type of drugs he was taking, so I don’t think the drugs have spread to this area yet.’

But it seemed like that moment wouldn’t be too far away.

In such private news channels, the first thing they reported was the kind of news that would make them money by dazzling viewers. But this was useless news that only made viewers anxious. The situation was definitely more serious than they thought.

‘It is possible that they received money from a security or guard company…’

“Order came out.”

“Chrome Caviar Group.”

Then the bartender brought out some food in a small bowl.

It was a food that looked like small, round, black grains piled up.

Although I ordered it as a side dish, it turned out to be nothing more than a snack that could be eaten at a bar table.

It was not a natural food like fruit or cheese that was too expensive to even think about, but an artificial food made by synthesizing ingredients with cheap ingredients.

Fortunately, the taste on the tongue is somewhat tolerable.

If there was no taste, these developing planets where food is hard to come by would have perished long ago.

The man lightly poked the side dish with a spoon held between his thumb and index finger.

“How much is this ‘delivery’?”

“There are a lot of orders coming in. It looks like it will be twice as much as last time.”

The bartender also answered calmly, as if we were having a normal conversation.

But he rubbed his temples, frowning at the bartender’s answer.

“Okay… Then it’ll take some time for delivery.”

“Please do it as quickly as possible. The orders have been coming in at an accelerating rate recently. Things must be getting a little chaotic.”

The bartender said, glancing at the TV screen.

In this situation, the answers he could give were set.

“Hoo… I’ll try my best.”

The man muttered something with a sigh and turned his gaze into the noisy bar.

“By the way, I see a lot of faces I haven’t seen before in the store. Is it because of the store location this month?”

“Yeah. I ended up being the only one who got into trouble because I ended up being assigned to the center of the market.”

The bartender grumbled and twitched his robotic arm.

This store, like the other buildings in the market, was a space made of commercial building blocks. And that meant that its location could change at any time, regardless of his will, depending on the intentions of Jamad, who runs the market.

Perhaps, if the store he was running was of a normal nature, he would have struggled to seize this opportunity in some way.

There are few better ways to make money than having a bar in a prime location.

However, the liquor business here was a sideline, and the main business was mediating various transactions and receiving commissions.

There was nothing good to come from having so many useless people coming and going.

It just attracts unnecessary attention and increases the chances of getting into trouble.

“… Are you perhaps displeased with Jamad?”

“How could I not know that? Damn it. If you had that kind of mind, I’d already be dead.”

The bartender shook his head as he spoke. He seemed half-relieved, muttering about his life.

As they were talking like that, a group of people approached them. The man at the front of them opened his mouth.

“Hey, it looks like you’re telling an interesting story.”

“… Ernest.”

The group that approached him were acquainted with him.

It wasn’t a very good look.

Their leader, Ernest, lived up to his name by engaging in illegal business. Robbery, murder, smuggling, drugs. They were crazy guys who touched everything that made money.

Ernest picked up the bowl of food placed before him and poured it into his mouth.

Ernest, who was splattering the contents of the chrome caviar around him with a grumble, bit into his blackened mouth.

“So, I’d like to hear the answer to the suggestion I made. You can’t continue to make a living by only doing business with people forever, right?”

“… It’s not about people, it’s about immigration support.”

The man spoke calmly, wiping the black water off his face.

His job was to smuggle those who wanted to escape the Frontier-7016 planetary system to other planetary systems.

The slang terms for delivery and order exchanged with the bartender also referred to requests from new immigrants.

Even though changing just a few words was completely meaningless to someone as attentive to the news as Ernest.

In order to develop the planetary system, Jamad was actively accepting immigrants from other planetary systems while preventing the migration of the existing population.

It was clearly necessary to develop the planetary system, but the problem was that in the process, a large number of people with bad habits were brought in. Not only Ernest in front of me, but also the drug dealers I saw in the back alley earlier were of that type.

So, conversely, the number of people trying to escape from this planet where the situation is getting worse is also increasing.

Most of the people who came to the man’s aid were survivors of the previous space dust storm disaster.

An ironic situation where the new influx of people pushes out the existing population.

But it was also a common occurrence on developing planetary systems.

“Ugh… Yes, immigration support. How much longer do you think you can live off of that? It’s small in scale, but from Jamad’s perspective, immigration brokers like you are probably more annoying than us. If you come under me, I guarantee your safety, right?”

Ernest’s offer to him was to join his gang.